Lịch sử

Lịch sử  Việt Nam.

À la recherche de l’origine du peuple vietnamien (Đi tìm nguồn gốc dân tộc Việt)

j050807 Culture, Đồng Sơn, Histoire, Lịch sử, Vietnam , ,


English version
Vietnamese version

La découverte du site Hemudu (Zhejiang) en 1973 fut un grand évènement pour les archéologues chinois car ce site datant plus de 5000 ans témoigne de la trace de la plus ancienne civilisation du riz trouvée jusque là dans le monde. On y a trouvé aussi les restes d’un habitat lacustre en bois monté sur pilotis, un type de construction bien différent des maisons en terre de la Chine du Nord. La population qui vivait là était caractérisée par des traits à la fois mongoloïdes et australo-négroïdes. Comme Zhejiang fait partie des plus belles provinces de la Chine du Sud depuis longtemps, on ne cesse pas d’attribuer aux Chinois cette fameuse civilisation bien qu’on sache que le berceau de leur civilisation est lié étroitement au bassin du fleuve Jaune (ou Huang He) (Hoàng Hà) dont Anyang est le cœur antique. On ne peut pas nier que leur civilisation a trouvé toute sa quintessence dans les cultures néolithiques de Yang-Shao (province de Henan) (5000 ans av J.C.) et Longshan ( province de Shandong ) ( 2500 ans av J.C. ) identifiées respectivement par le Suédois Johan G. Andersson en 1921 et par le père de l’archéologie chinoise Li Ji quelques années plus tard. Grâce aux travaux d’analyse phylogénétique de l’équipe américaine dirigée par le professeur J.Y. Chu de l’université de Texas publiés en Juillet 1998 dans la Revue de l’Académie des Sciences américaine et groupés sous le titre «  Genetic Relationship of Population in China » (1) , on a commencé à avoir une idée précise sur l’origine du peuple chinois. 

On a relevé deux points importants dans ces travaux:

  • 1°) Il est clair que l’évidence génétique ne peut pas soutenir une indépendance originale des Homo -sapiens en Chine. Les ancêtres des populations vivant actuellement dans l’Est de la Chine venaient de l’Asie du Sud Est.
  • 2°) Désormais, il est probablement sûr de conclure que les gens « modernes » originaires d’Afrique constituent en grande partie le capital génétique trouvé couramment dans l’Asie de l’Est.

Dans sa conclusion, le professeur J.Y. Chu a reconnu qu’il est probable que les ancêtres des populations parlant des langues altaïques ( ou des Han ) étaient issus de la population de l’Asie du Sud Est et des peuplades venant de l’Asie centrale et de l’Europe.

Cette découverte n’a pas remis en cause ce qu’a proposé il y a quelques années auparavant le professeur d’anthropologie Wilhelm G. Solheim II de l’université Hawaii dans son ouvrage intitulé Une nouvelle lumière dans un passé oublié.(2) Pour cet anthropologue, il n’y avait pas de doute que la culture de Hòa Bình ( 15000 ans avant J.C. ) découverte en 1922 par l’archéologue français Madeleine Colani dans un village proche de la province Hòa Bình du Vietnam avait été la base de la naissance et de l’évolution future des cultures néolithiques de Yang-Shao (Ngưỡng Thiều)  et de Longshan (Long Sơn)  trouvées dans le Nord de la Chine. Le physicien britannique Stephen Oppenheimer était allé au delà de ce qui n’était pas pensé jusque-là en démontrant dans sa démarche logique et scientifique que le berceau de la civilisation de l’humanité était en Asie du Sud Est dans son ouvrage intitulé  Eden dans l’Est: le continent noyé de l’Asie du Sud Est.

Il y a conclu qu’en se basant sur les preuves géologiques trouvées au fond de la mer de l’Est (Biển Đông)  et sur les méthodes de datation effectuées avec C-14 sur la nourriture ( patate douce, taro, riz, céréales etc. ) retrouvée en Asie du Sud Est ( Non Nok Tha, Sa Kai ( Thailande ), Phùng Nguyên, Ðồng Ðậu (Vietnam), Indonésie ), un grand déluge avait eu lieu et avait obligé les gens de cette région qui, contrairement à ce que les archéologues occidentaux avaient décrit comme des gens vivant de pêche, de chasse et de cueillette, étaient les premiers sachant maîtriser parfaitement la riziculture et l’agriculture, à émigrer dans tous les azimuts ( soit vers le Sud en Océanie, soit vers l’Est dans le Pacifique , soit vers l’Ouest en Inde ou soit vers le Nord en Chine ) pour leur subsistance. Ces gens étaient devenus les semences des grandes et brillantes civilisations trouvées plus tard en Inde, en Mésopotamie, en Egypte et en Méditerranée.

De cette constatation archéologique et scientifique, on est amené à poser des questions sur tout ce qui a été rapporté et falsifié par l’histoire dans cette région du monde et enseigné jusque-là aux Vietnamiens. Peut-on ignorer encore longtemps ces découvertes scientifiques ? Peut-on continuer à croire encore aux écrits chinois (Hậu Hán Thư par exemple ) dans lesquels on a imputé aux préfets chinois Tích Quang (Si Kouang) et Nhâm Diên (Ren Yan) le soin d’apprendre aux ancêtres des Vietnamiens la façon de s’habiller et l’usage de la charrue qu’ils ne connaissent pas au premier siècle de notre ère? Comment ne connaissent-ils pas la riziculture, les descendants légitimes du roi Shennong (Thần Nông) (3), lorsqu’on sait que ce dernier était un spécialiste dans le domaine agraire? Personne n’ose relever cette contradiction.

Shennong (Thần Nông)

On ne se pose même pas des questions sur ce que les gens du Nord ont donné à ce héros divin comme surnom Yandi (Viêm Ðế) ( roi du pays chaud des Bai Yue ) (3). S’agit -il de leur façon de se référer au roi de la région du Sud car à l’époque des Zhou, le territoire des Yue était connu sous le nom Viêm Bang? Est-il possible aux gens nomades du Nord d’origine turco-mongole, les ancêtres des Han et aux gens du Sud, les Yue d’avoir les mêmes ancêtres? S’agit-il encore d’une pure affabulation édifiée à la gloire des conquérants et destinée à légitimer leur politique d’assimilation? 

Toutes les traces des autres peuples, les « Barbares », ont été effacées lors de leur passage. La conquête du continent chinois a commencé aux confins du lœss et de la Grande Plaine et a existé près de quatre millénaires. C’est ce qu’a noté l’érudit français René Grousset dans son ouvrage « Histoire de la Chine » en parlant de l’expansion d’une race de rudes pionniers chinois de la Grande Plaine .

Face à leur brillante civilisation, peu de gens y compris les Européens lors de leur arrivée en Asie ont osé mettre en doute ce qui a été dit jusque-là dans les annales chinoises et vietnamiennes et penser à l’existence même d’une autre civilisation que les dominateurs ont réussi à accaparer et à effacer sur le territoire soumis du peuple Bai Yue. Le nom de l’Indochine a déjà reflété en grande partie cette attitude car pour un grand nombre de gens, il n’y a que deux civilisations méritant d’être citées en Asie: celles de l’Inde et de la Chine. Il est regrettable de constater aussi la même méprise commise par certains historiens vietnamiens imprégnés par la culture chinoise dans leur ouvrage historique. A force d’être endoctrinés par la politique de colonisation des gens du Nord, un certain nombre de Vietnamiens continuent à oublier notre origine et à penser aujourd’hui que nous sommes issus des Chinois. Ceux-ci n’hésitaient pas à mettre en marche leur politique d’assimilation et d’annexion dans les territoires qu’ils avaient réussi à conquérir depuis la création de leur nation. Le succès de la sinisation des Han était visible au fil des siècles lors de leur contact avec d’autres peuples « barbares » . Le processus ne dut pas être différent de celui qui a marqué leur empiétement au XIXème siècle sur la « terre des herbes mongole » et au XXème sur la forêt mandchourienne. 

On ne réfute pas à leur brillante civilisation d’avoir un impact indéniable sur le développement de la culture vietnamienne durant leur longue domination mais on ne peut pas oublier de reconnaître que les ancêtres des Vietnamiens, les Luo Yue (ou Lạc Việt) ont eu leur propre culture, celle de Bai Yue. Ils étaient les seuls survivants de ce peuple à ne pas être sinisés dans les tourmentes de l’histoire. Ils étaient les héritiers légitimes du peuple Bai Yue et de sa civilisation agricole. Les tambours en bronze de Ðồng Sơn ont témoigné de leur légitimité car on a trouvé sur ces objets les motifs de décoration retraçant leurs activités agricoles et maritimes de cette brillante époque avant l’arrivée des Chinois sur leur territoire ( Kiao Tche ou Giao Chỉ en vietnamien ).

On sait maintenant que la civilisation agricole de Hemudu a donné naissance à la culture de Bai Yue (ou Bách Việt en vietnamien). Le terme Bai Yue signifiant littéralement les Cent Yue, a été employé par les Chinois pour désigner toutes les tribus croyant appartenir à un groupe, les Yue. Selon l’écrivain talentueux vietnamien Bình Nguyên Lộc, l’outil employé fréquemment par les Yue est la hache (cái rìu en vietnamien) trouvée sous diverses formes et fabriquée avec des matériaux différents (pierre, fer ou bronze). C’est pour cette raison qu’au moment du contact avec les gens nomades du Nord d’origine turco-mongole, les ancêtres des Han (ou Chinois), ils étaient appelés par ces derniers, sous le nom « les Yue », les gens ayant l’habitude de se servir de la hache. Celle-ci prit à cette époque la forme suivante:

et servit de modèle de représentation dans l’écriture chinoise par le pictogramme. Celui-ci continua à figurer intégralement dans le mot Yue  auquel on ajoute aussi le radical mễ  (米) riz ou gạo en vietnamien) pour désigner les  riziculteurs à l’époque de Confucius. De nos jours, dans le mot Yue 越, outre le radical « Tẩu (走) outrepasser ou en vietnamien vượt ) »,  la hache continue à être représentée par le pictogramme  戉 modifié incessamment au fil des années. Le mot Yue provient peut-être phonétiquement du phonème Yit employé par la tribu Mường pour désigner la hache. Il est important de rappeler que la tribu Mường est celle ayant les mêmes origines que la tribu Luo Yue (ou Lạc Việt) dont les Vietnamiens sont issus. (Les rois illustres vietnamiens Lê Ðại Hành , Lê Lợi étant des Mường). Récemment, l’archéologue et chercheuse du CNRS, Corinne Debaine-Francfort a parlé de l’utilisation des haches cérémonielles yue par les Chinois dans le sacrifice d’humains ou d’animaux, dans son ouvrage intitulé « La redécouverte de la Chine ancienne » (Editeur Gallimard, 1998). Le sage Confucius avait l’occasion de parler du peuple Bai Yue dans les entretiens qu’il a eus avec ses disciples. 

Le peuple Bai Yue vivant dans le sud du fleuve Yang Tsé (Dương Tử Giang) a un mode de vie, un langage, des traditions, des mœurs et une nourriture spécifique … Ils se consacrent à la riziculture et se distinguent des nôtres habitués à cultiver le millet et le blé. Ils boivent de l’eau provenant d’une sorte de plante cueillie dans la forêt et connue sous le nom « thé ». Ils aiment danser, travailler tout en chantant et alterner des répliques dans les chants. Ils se déguisent souvent dans la danse avec les feuilles des plantes. Il faut éviter de les imiter . (Xướng ca vô loại). 

L’influence confucianiste n’est pas étrangère au préjugé que les parents vietnamiens continuent à entretenir encore aujourd’hui lorsque leurs enfants s’adonnent un peu trop aux activités musicales ou théâtrales. C’est dans cet esprit confucéen qu’on les voit d’un mauvais œil. Mais c’est aussi l’attitude adoptée par les gouverneurs chinois en interdisant aux Vietnamiens d’avoir des manifestations musicales dans les cérémonies et les festivités durant la période de leur longue domination.

L’historien chinois Si Ma Qian (Tư Mã Thiên) avait l’occasion de parler de ces Yue dans ses Mémoires historiques (Sử Ký Tư Mã Thiên) lorsqu’il a retracé la vie du seigneur illustre Gou Jian (Câu Tiễn), prince des Yue pour sa patience incommensurable face au seigneur ennemi Fu Chai (Phù Sai), roi de la principauté de Wu (Ngô) à l’époque des Printemps et Automnes. Après sa mort, son royaume fut absorbé complètement en 332 avant J.C. par le royaume de Chu (Sở Quốc) qui fut annexé à son tour plus tard par Qin Shi Huang Di (Tần Thủy Hoàng) lors de l’unification de la Chine. Il est important de souligner que le site de Hemudu se trouve dans le royaume Yue de Gou Jian.(Zhejiang).

Parmi les  groupes partageant la même culture de Bai Yue , on trouve les Yang Yue, les Nan Yue (Nam Việt), les Lu Yue, Les Xi Ou, Les Ou Yue, les Luo Yue (Lạc Việt , les Gan Yue, les Min Yue (Mân Việt), les Yi Yue, les Yue Shang etc. Ils vivaient au sud du bassin du fleuve bleu , de Zhejiang (Chiết Giang) jusqu’au Jiaozhi (Giao Chỉ)(le Nord du Vietnam d’aujourd’hui). On retrouve dans cette aire de répartition les provinces actuelles de la Chine du Sud: Foujian (Phúc Kiến), Hunan (Hồ Nam), Guizhou (Qúi Châu), Guangdong (Quảng Ðông), Jiangxi, Guangxi (Quảng Tây) et Yunnan (Vân Nam).

Les Bai Yue étaient probablement les héritiers de la culture Hoà Bình . Ils étaient un peuple d’agriculteurs avertis: ils cultivaient le riz en brûlis et en champ inondé et élevaient buffles et porcs. Ils vivaient aussi de la chasse et de la pêche. Ils avaient coutume de se tatouer le corps pour se protéger contre les attaques des dragons d’eau (con thuồng luồng). En s’appuyant sur les Mémoires Historiques de Si Ma Qian, l’érudit français Léonard Aurousseau a évoqué la coutume des ancêtres de Goujian ( roi des Yue de l’Est) de peindre leurs corps de dragons ou d’autres bêtes aquatiques comme celle trouvée chez les Yue du Sud.

Ils portaient les cheveux longs en chignon et soutenus par un turban. D’après certains textes vietnamiens, ils avaient des cheveux courts pour faciliter leur marche dans les forêts des montagnes. Leurs vêtements étaient confectionnés avec les fibres végétales. Leurs maisons étaient surélevées pour éviter les attaques des bêtes sauvages. Ils se servaient de tambours en bronze comme d’objets rituels utilisés pour les cérémonies d’invocation à la pluie ou comme un emblème de pouvoir utilisé en cas de besoins pour appeler les guerriers au combat. « Les Giao Chỉ ont possédé un sacré instrument : le tambour en bronze. En écoutant la voix du tambour, ils étaient tellement enthousiastes au moment de la guerre etc. », c’est ce qu’on a trouvé dans le premier volume de l’écrit chinois « Hậu Hán Thư (L’écrit de Hán postérieur) . Leurs guerriers étaient vêtus d’un simple pagne et armés de longues lances ornées de plumes. Ils étaient aussi des hardis navigateurs qui, sur leurs longues pirogues, sillonnèrent toute la Mer de l’Est (Biển Đông)  et au delà une partie des mers australes. Malgré leur haute technicité et leur maîtrise parfaite en matière d’agriculture et de riziculture, ils étaient un peuple très pacifique. Lire la suite (2ème partie)

(1) Volume 95, issue 20, 1763-1768, 29 July , 1998
(2) National Geographic, Vol 139, no 3
(3) Kinh Dương Vương, étant le père de l’ancêtre des Vietnamiens, Lạc Long Quân et l’arrière petit-fils du roi Shen Nong.

 

Champa sculpture: (Điêu Khắc cổ Champa) Part 3

j050807 Art, Chămpa, Culture, Histoire, Lịch sử, Musées , , ,

e_sculpture_champa3
French version
Vietnamese version

Mỹ Sơn A 1 Style

Phong Cách Mỹ Sơn A 1 (Xth century)

French researcher Jean Boisselier distinguishes two styles. The first style is known under the name of Khương Mỹ (first half of the Xth century) and it is constituted by the works adopting again some features found in the Ðồng Dương style. As to the second style, it is called under the Trà Kiệu name (second half of the Xth century) and it brings together the works getting completely off the Đồng Dương style. We note a increasingly marked indo-Javanese influence after having taken Khmer influences.

In the Khương Mỹ style, we observe in both harmony and symmetry. The sweetness is also visible in the facial expressions to the sculptures. Regarding the Trà Kiệu style, in addition to the sweetness found in poses and faces, we find the beauty of the adornments, the half-smile, the trend toward the high prominent reliefs etc. ..The development of female beauty is no longer in doubt (breasts fully developed, broad hips, the elegance of the body etc.) in the Cham sculpture during this period.

 

Phong Cách Mỹ Sơn A 1 

 

In the Trà Kiệu style’s prolongation, there’s the Chánh Lộ style (11th century) where we are a witness to the return of main features: thick lips, wide mouth, arch of eyebrow in relief. In this style, there is the absence of the half-smile on the face, the disappearance of the broad hips, the simplification of ornament and cap ( Kirita-Mukuta ). We can say that it is in fact a return to the past. This style is only a transition style between those of Mỹ Sơn A 1 and Bình Ðịnh. 

Tháp Mắm style
(or Bình Ðịnh style)

The latter stretches with its extensions, from 11th century until the end of the 13th century. The Champa became a Khmer province for twenty years (between 1203 and 1220). It is for this reason that the significant influence of the Angkorian art is found in this style. It is not by chance that French researcher Jean Boisselier imputes the beginning of the 13th century of Tháp Mắm style to the Bayon style in the Cham art. 

The Tháp Mắm style is both eccentric by the enrichment of the decor and the expression of fantastic animals, deities and dvarapalas (thick lips, pupils not marked, eyebrows in clear relief, nostrils dilated, a beard, mustaches)

Phong Cách Tháp Mắm

The works of this long period show close relationships, not only with Khmer art but also with Vietnamese art. The dragons of Tháp Mắm, towers of gold, silver and ivory, demonstrate the Vietnamese influence (period of Lý and Trần dynasties). In this style, the animal sculptures are very varied but they reflect the unrealistic and mythical character. Sometimes, some ferocious and nasty animals very pushed to implausibility and exaggeration, become charming and cute creatures.

Makara

sculpture_cham_thap_man

One can have the same ambiguous idea of French researcher Jean Boisselier on the Champa art by asking oneself if one encounters a decadent work or one is at the top of a art pushed to its limits. Vietnamese researcher Ngô văn Doanh has the opportunity to compare this style to the ray of light before the nightfall. Although this one is splendid and blazing hot, it is too « old« . It is about to disappear with regrets for giving way to Yang Mun and Pô Rome styles.

Tháp mắm style

Phong Cách Muộn

Yang Mum et Pô Rome styles
( XIVth -XVth century)

One finds in these styles the mediocre and schematic character. There is a tendency to stylize your carved images and to neglect the rest, in particular the lower limbs that are sometimes reduced to a triangular stone block or a pedestal. The kut (or funerary steles  the base uncarved is buried under the growth) show with rudeness a human silhouette without anyone knowing there is a Muslim influence or a return to the animist past.

 

Hinduism gives way to new forms of religion (cult of local geniuses (the Yang), animism, islam) since the fall of Vijaya (Bình Ðịnh) in 1471 against the Vietnamese (Lê Thánh Tôn) and the loss of all holy places (Mỹ Sơn, Trà Kiệu, Đồng Dương), which thus express a long and irreversible twilight for Cham sculpture. Being left in oblivion since so many years and recently appropriated by the Vietnamese, the Champa sculpture goes back to be their object of admiration since the exposure of Vietnam art treasures (2005 Guimet Museum, Paris) and one of the major components of Vietnamese art. Now, it is an integral part of the artistic and cultural heritage of Vietnam.

[Return CHAMPA]

Bibliography reference

  • La statuaire  du Champa. Jean Boisselier. Volume LIV, EFEO Paris 1963.
  • Văn hóa cổ Champa. Ngô Văn Doanh . NXB Dân Tộc 2002
  • Champa sculpture. Nguyễn Thế Thục. NXB  Thông Tấn 2007
  • Jean Boisselier . La statuaire du Champa. Recherche sur les cultes et l’iconographie.
  • Bénisti Mireille: Arts asiatiques. Année 1965. Volume 12. N°1.
  • L’art du Champa. Jean François Hubert. Editeur Parkstone Press International. 2005
  • Pérégrinations culturelles au Champa. Nguyễn Vă Kự, Ngô Văn Doanh, Andrew Hardy. Editions Thế Giới Publishers 2005

Champa sculpture: (Điêu khắc Cổ) Part 2

j050807 Art, Chămpa, Culture, Lịch sử, Musées

 

French version
Vietnamese version

Mỹ Sơn E1 style:
(VIIth -middle VIIIth century)

The sculptures of  Mỹ Sơn sanctuary are distinguished not only by the finesse in details but also by the vitality in ornamentation. The amazing and brilliant combination of Cham realistic descriptions and characteristic elements found in the Indian philosophical doctrine (hinduism) has marked the beginning of the golden age of Cham culture.

The divinities head  found at Mỹ Sơn site has the following characters: square face, big eyes, thick lips, large ears with pendants, straight nose, hairstyle in spherical shape with the ringed octogonal vertical element, halo behind the head. It may indicate the Chenla influence (or Cambodia at the pre-Angkorian period ). This is the case of Visnu in a lying position, similar a pre-Angkorian lintel and located in the Mỹ Sơn E 1 pediment.

Mỹ Sơn E1 style

(Middle 8th -Middle 9th century)
Hoàn Vương period.

It is marked by the significant influence of Java. The postural waddle, sensuality and elegance in the sculpture and the halo behind the head give to this style a indisputable subtlety. It seems that only remain the sculptures carved in the temples brick. French researcher Jean Boisselier has pointed out that a lot of bronzes dated back to this period and were imported from Indonesia. This highlights the privileged relationship between Champa and Indonesia.

Điêu khắc Cổ Chămpa

Ðồng Dương style
(Middle of 9th century)

sculpture_dongduong1

 

Déesse Tara,

Bronze height 1m20 (2002)

This is the style where the facial appearance is very typical. It is easily recognized by the common features: protruding eyebrowns joined by a continuous and sinous line going back up to the hair, thick lips with the upturned commissures, a moustache that is confused sometimes to upper lip and flat, broad (from face) and aquiline (from profile) nose, narrow front and short chin. The God is identified by his frontal eye. The absence of the smiling face is mentioned. 

This style corresponds to Indrapura period where Buddhism knew a significant development and became the personal inclination of Indravarman II king. The latter built, in the second half of the 9th century, a Buddhist monastery in Ðồng Dương, located 65 km from Ðà Nẵng city. There is a lot of artworks concerning the Buddhism of the Great Vehicle. It is here that we found an inscription testifying to his simultaneous homage to Laksmindra Lokesvara (another name of Avalokitesvara) (Buddhism) and Shiva Bhadesrava (Shaivism). 

This is the sign of the Cham syncretism during this period. A lot of questions arise about the provenance of the Cham Buddhist influence. We long believed and proposed a Chinese influence prior to Liang dynasty via the center of Nanjing in Wanfosi (Chengdu) or in Quingzhou (Shandong). But one could suggest a southern influence coming from the Funan kingdom in Mekong delta. The Ðồng Dương style gives to Buddha statues a condensed aspect of masculinity, vigilant sweetness and well-controlled force.

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Đồng Dương style

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Pictures gallery

Champa sculpture ( Điêu khắc cổ Champa): Part 1

j050807 Art, Chămpa, Gallery, Lịch sử

dieu_khac_champa
Version française
Version vietnamienne

Until today, the exact ethnic origin of the Chams is not known. Some believe that they came from continental Asia and were pushed back along with other populations living in southern China (the Bai Yue) by the Chinese, while others (ethnologists, anthropologists, and linguists) highlighted their island origin through their research work.

Carving a statue is a religious act.

For the latter, the Chams were probably populations from the South Seas (the countries of the archipelagos or those of the Malay Peninsula). Cham oral traditions mentioning connections linking, in legendary times, Champa and Java support this latter hypothesis.
Nicknamed the Vikings of Southeast Asia, the Chams lived along the coasts of central and southern present-day Vietnam. Their main activities were essentially based on trade. They were in contact very early with China and territories as far away as the Malay Peninsula, possibly the coasts of South India.

Being dedicated to religious purposes, Cham sculpture was thus not immune to political repercussions and influences from outside, particularly those from India, Cambodia, and Java. These became the main forces of creation, development, and evolution of styles in their art. According to the French researcher Jean Boisselier, Cham sculpture was closely linked to history. Significant changes were noted in the development of Cham sculpture, especially statuary, with historical events, changes of dynasties, or the relations that Champa had with its neighbors (Vietnam or Cambodia). According to the Vietnamese researcher Ngô Văn Doanh, whenever there was a significant external impact, a new style in Cham sculpture soon appeared.

To illustrate this, it is enough to cite an example: in the 11th-12th centuries, the intensification of violent contacts especially with Vietnam and Cambodia, and the emergence of new concepts related to the foundations of royal power can explain the originality and richness found in the style of Tháp Mắm.

Pictures gallery

 

Being the expression of the Indian pantheon (Brahmanist but especially Shaivist and Buddhist), Cham sculpture rather resorts to the local interpretation of concepts and norms coming from outside with elegance than to servile imitation. It is above all a support for meditation and a proof of devotion. Sculpting a statue is a religious act. Subject to religious norms, the Cham sculptor, with his skillful hands, succeeded in fervently giving the inert stone a soul, a divine representation allowing the conveyance of the religious concept he wished to transmit with faith. Cham sculpture is peaceful. No scenes of horror are depicted. There are only somewhat fanciful animal creatures (lions, dragons, birds, elephants, etc.). No violent or indecent forms are found in the deities. Despite the evolution of styles over history, Cham sculpture continues to maintain the same divine and animal creatures within a constant theme.

 

Makara

Cham art has succeeded in maintaining its specificity, its own facial expression, and its particular beauty without it being said that it is a servile copy of external models, thus preserving its uniqueness in Hindu sculpture found in India and Southeast Asia. Despite the lack of animation and realism, Cham works were mostly carved from sandstone and much more rarely from terracotta and other alloys (gold, silver, bronze, etc.).

Generally modest in size, they depict religious beliefs and worldviews. They cannot leave us indifferent because they always give us a strong strange impression. This is one of the characteristics of the beauty of Cham art.

In Cham sculpture, one finds free-standing sculptures (round-bosses), high reliefs, and low reliefs. A free-standing sculpture is one that can be viewed from all sides to see the sculptor’s work. A high relief is a sculpture with a very prominent relief that does not detach from the background. As for the low relief, it is a sculpture with slight projection on a uniform background. In Cham sculpture, there is a tendency to emphasize the roundness of creatures in the reliefs. Few scenes are depicted in this sculpture. There is a noted lack of connection or coherence in the assembly when otherwise.

The creatures found in Cham sculpture tend to always emerge brilliantly from the space surrounding them. They have something monumental about them. Even when they are grouped together in the works of Mỹ Sơn, Trà Kiệu depicting the daily life of the Chams, they give us the impression that each one remains independent from the others.

One can say that the Cham sculptor focuses solely on the creature he wants to show and deify without ever thinking about excessively unrealistic details and imperfections (such as the too-large hand or the overly bent arm of the dancer from Trà Kiệu, for example) and without closely imitating the original Indian models, which gives this Cham sculpture the « monumental » character not found in other sculptures. This is another particularity found in this Cham sculpture.

The works are not numerous but they testify to a beautiful plastic quality and the expression of various religions. It is difficult to attribute them to a single style. On the other hand, some traits close to the tradition of Indian art from Amaravati can be noted. It was only in the second half of the 7th century, under the reign of King Prakasadharma Vikrantavarman I, that Cham sculpture began to take shape and reveal its originality. [Reading more]

 

Joyaux de la Nation (Bảo vật Quốc Gia)

j050807 Art, Lịch sử, Văn Hóa , , ,

English version

French version

Là mảnh đất của các nền văn minh, Việt Nam sau một thế kỷ khai quật khảo cổ do các nhà khảo cổ người Pháp rồi người Việt tiến hành, đã phát hiện ra rất nhiều hiện vật, trong đó có những hiện vật nổi bật bởi vẻ đẹp vô giá và sự độc đáo hiếm có. Một số mẫu vật trở thành những viên ngọc quý của quốc gia và đại diện cho một trong ba nền văn minh được phát hiện tại Việt Nam. Chúng ta có thể chiêm ngưỡng chúng tại các bảo tàng lịch sử Việt Nam (Hà Nội, Đà Nẵng, Sài Gòn, An Giang). Trong số các hiện vật khai quật được, có thể kể đến trống đồng Ngọc Lũ nổi tiếng, biểu tượng của nền văn hóa Đông Sơn. Tiếp theo là:

1°) Đèn đứng của mộ số 3 tại Lạch Trương, Đồng Sơn, bằng đồng, cao 0,33m. Bảo tàng lịch sử Hà Nội.

2°) Bình đựng nước Đào Thịnh ở Yên Bái, văn hóa Đông Sơn, bằng đồng, cao 81cm. Bảo tàng lịch sử Hà Nội. Chiếc bình này gợi nhắc đến tín ngưỡng thờ phồn thực (Văn hóa phồn thực).

3°) Bình gốm trang trí cảnh quan vẽ màu xanh trắng lấy từ xác tàu đắm ở đảo Cù Lao Chàm (Quảng Nam). Qua hình ảnh thiên nga trên bình, ta thấy được nét tâm hồn Việt Nam. Bảo tàng lịch sử Hà Nội.

4°) Tượng Bồ tát Tara (văn hóa Chăm), bằng đồng khảm vàng, bạc và đá quý bán quý. Cao 1,15m. Phong cách Đông Dương (giữa thế kỷ IX). Bảo tàng Đà Nẵng.

5°) Tượng Phật, Đồng Dương, Quảng Nam (thế kỷ VIII-IX). Đồng thau Cao: 119cm, Rộng: 38cm. Tượng đồng này, đúc bằng phương pháp đúc mất sáp, được tìm thấy gần như nguyên vẹn khi phát hiện. Phong cách của nó vẫn còn bí ẩn. Bảo tàng Lịch sử (Saïgon).

6°) Tượng Phật ngồi trong tư thế chạm đất chứng minh (bắt ấn địa xúc) (bhūmisparśa-mudrā). Văn hóa Óc Eo. Bảo tàng An Giang.

Etant la terre des civilisations, le Vietnam recèle au bout d’un siècle de fouilles archéologiques entamées d’abord par les archéologues français puis par ceux du Vietnam, un grand nombre de trouvailles dont certaines se distinguent par leur beauté incommensurable et par leur originalité exceptionnelle. Certains spécimens deviennent les joyaux de la nation et représentent l’une des trois civilisations découvertes au Vietnam. On peut les admirer dans les musées de l’histoire du Vietnam (Hanoï, Đà Nẵng, Saïgon, An Giang). Parmi ces objets exhumés, on peut citer le célèbre tambour de bronze Ngọc Lũ, symbole de la civilisation dongsonienne. Il est suivi ensuite par

1°) Le lampadaire de la tombe n°3 de Lạch Trương, Đồng Sơn, Bronze, Hauteur: 0,33m. Musée de l’histoire de Hànội

2°) La situle Đào Thịnh de Yên Bái, Đồng Sơn, Bronze, Hauteur: 81cm. Musée de l’histoire de  Hanoï. Cette situle évoque le culte de la fertilité. (Văn hóa phồn thực)

3°) Le vase en céramique (gốm) à décor de paysage peint en couleur « bleu et blanc » provenant de l’épave de l’île Cù Lao Chàm (Quảng Nam). On y trouve à travers le motif du cygne les traits de l’âme vietnamienne. Musée de l’histoire de Hànội.

4°) La statue de la bodhisattva Tara (culture chame), bronze incrusté d’or, d’argent et de pierres semi-précieuses. Hauteur: 1,15m. Style Đông Dương (Milieu du du IXème siècle). Musée de Đà Nẵng.

5°) Statue de bouddha, Đồng Dương, Quảng Nam (VIIIème-IXème siècle) . Bronze H:119cm, L:38cm. Cette statue en bronze, fondue à cire perdue a été retrouvée presque intacte au moment de sa découverte. Son style reste énigmatique. Musée de l’histoire (Saigon).

 6°) La statue du Bouddha assis dans la position de la prise de la terre à témoin (bắt ấn địa xúc) (bhūmisparśa-mudrā). Civilisation Óc Eo. Musée de An Giang.

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Bảo vật Quốc Gia

English version

During a century of archaeological excavations initially started  by French archaeologists and then by those of Vietnam, the land of civizilations Vietnam holds   a large number of archeological finds, some of which are distinguished by their incommensurable beauty and their  exceptional originality. Some specimens become the jewels of the nation and represent one of the three civilizations discovered in Vietnam. One can admire them in the history museums of Vietnam (Hanoï, Đà Nẵng, Sàigon, An Giang). Among these objects exhumed, one can cite the famous bronze drum Ngọc Lũ, symbol of Đồng Sơn civilization. It is followed by

1°) The floor lamp found in the tomb n°3 of Lạch Trương, Đồng Sơn, Bronze, Heigth: 0,33m. Museum of Hanoï

2°) The situla Đào Thịnh of Yên Bái, Đồng Sơn, Bronze, Heigth: 81cm. Museum of Hanoï. This situla evoke the cult of fertility. (Văn hóa phồn thực)

3°) The ceramic vase (gốm) with an attractive decoration of landscape painted in color « blue and white » . It was retrieved from the wreck of Cù Lao Chàm island (Quảng Nam). Thanks to the  swan motif, one discovers the traits of Vietnamese soul. History museum of Hanoï.

4°) The statue of  Tara bodhisattva (Cham culture), in bronze overlaid with or, silver and semi-precious stones. Heigth: 1,15m. Đông Dương style (Middle of 9th century). Museum of Đà Nẵng.

5°) Buddha statue, Đồng Dương, Quảng Nam (8th-9th century) . Bronze H:119cm, L:38cm. This bronze statue in molten wax was found almost intact at the discovery  time. Its style remains enigmatic. History museum of Saigon.

6°) The statue of Buddha making the mudra of taking the earth as witness with the right hand (bắt ấn địa xúc) (bhūmisparśa-mudrā) . Óc Eo civilization. Museum of An Giang.

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Vietnamese buddhism (Phật giáo Vietnam)

j050807 Culture, Histoire, Lịch sử, Religion, Văn Hóa , , ,

French version

Vietnamese version

The exact date of the introduction of Buddhism to Vietnam is not known. According to the Vietnamese scholar Phan Lạc Tuyên, Indian monks came to Vietnam at the beginning of the Christian era based on the story of Chu Đồng Tử, who was initiated into Buddhism during his encounter with an Indian monk. This was also the period of the Three Kingdoms (Tam Quốc) when Vietnam was a Chinese province called Jiaozhi (Giao Châu) under the governance of Shi Xie (Sĩ Nhiếp). At that time, Vietnam belonged to the kingdom of Wu (Đông Ngô) led by Sun Quan (Tôn Quyền), whose mother, a fervent disciple, brought monks from Luy Lâu to Jianye (the capital of the kingdom of Wu), which corresponds to the current city of Nanjing (Nam Kinh), to ask them to preach and comment on Buddhist sutras.

The Buddhist center Luy Lâu became so prestigious and important that it soon attracted many famous Indian or foreign monks such as Ksudra (Khâu Đà Là), Mahajivaca (Ma Ha Kỳ Vực), Kang-Sen-Houci (Khương Tăng Hội), Dan Tian (Đàm Thiên). Being the senior monk of the Sui dynasty, the latter, upon his return to China, had the opportunity to report to Emperor Sui Wendi (Tùy Văn Đế) on the development of Vietnamese Buddhism: the province of Giao Châu had adopted Buddhism before us because, in addition to the construction of 20 pagodas, it had more than 500 monks and 15 collections of translated sutras.

This undeniably proves that Buddhism was flourishing at that time in Vietnam. It is important to recall that in the Chinese annals, there is mention of the pillaging by the Chinese army under General Lieou Fang (Lưu Phương) of the Sui dynasty (nhà Tùy). This general devastated the capital of Champa, Điển Xung (Kandapurpura), under the reign of King Sambhuvarman (Phạm Phạn Chí in Vietnamese) and took with him 1,350 Buddhist texts compiled in 564 volumes. Champa very early on promoted the establishment of Buddhism, as it was already mentioned by the famous monk Yijing (Nghĩa Tịnh) upon his return from his maritime journey in the Insulinde as one of the Southeast Asian countries that held the Buddha’s doctrine in high esteem at the end of the 7th century under the reign of Wu Ze Tian (Vũ Tắc Thiên) of the Tang dynasty (Nhà Đường).

Although Vietnam was a Chinese protectorate (from 111 BC to 931 AD), it was nevertheless the true relay between China and India. The establishment of Buddhism was very early in this country at the beginning of the Christian era because Vietnam was not only next to countries using Sanskrit for Buddhist texts such as Founan (Phù Nam) and Champa but also the mandatory passage point for Indian merchants. They needed to rest, replenish food supplies, and exchange goods (silk, spices, eaglewood, cinnamon, pepper, ivory, etc.).

At that time, India had established trade relations directly with the Middle East and indirectly with Mediterranean countries such as the Roman Empire. Mahayana Buddhism flourished in India with the centers of Amaravati and Nagarjunakonda in the coastal region of southeastern India (Andhra Pradesh). This encouraged Indian monks to accompany sailors along the coasts of Malaysia, Funan, and Vietnam with the intention of spreading the faith. That is why it can be said that Vietnamese Buddhism came directly from India with Indian monks, but in no way was it brought by the Chinese.

Vietnamese Buddhism, whose current is Mahayana, takes more into account collective salvation than individual salvation, whereas Theravada Buddhism considers salvation as the result of efforts made by the individual to achieve enlightenment and become a bodhisattva. At the beginning of its establishment, Buddhism encountered no resistance from the Vietnamese because it easily accepted their traditional paganism. It only had some simple and modest religious activities such as the veneration of the Buddha, offerings, acts of mercy, etc. Buddha was none other than Quán Thế Âm (Avalokitesvara) and Nhiên Đăng (Dipankara) because these figures protected sailors during sea voyages. The first Vietnamese Buddhist legends, Thích Quang Phật and Man Nương Phật Mẫu, also appeared at this time with the arrival of the monk Ksudra, also known as Kalacarya (the Black Master), in Vietnam.

It is through these legends that Man Nương, upon her death, became an object of worship under the name « Mother Buddha or Phật Mẫu » by the Vietnamese. These legends thus testify to the ease of integrating popular beliefs into Buddhism. Furthermore, this religion, imported early on, was under Indian influence which, according to researcher Hà Văn Tấn, lasted until the 5th century.

The Chinese governor Sĩ Nhiếp (177-266) was often accompanied in the city by religious figures coming from India (người Hồ) or Central Asia (Trung Á) on each outing. The number of foreign monks was so significant that Giao Châu became a few years later the center for translating sutras, among which was the famous Saddharmasamadhi sutra (Pháp Hoa Tam Muội) translated by the monk Chi Cương Lương Tiếp (Kalasivi) in the course of the 3rd century.

It is also important to note that in a short period of six years (542-547), King Lý Nam Đế (Lý Bí) of the early Lý dynasty succeeded in freeing Vietnam from Chinese domination and ordered the construction of the Khai Quốc pagoda (Foundation of the Nation), which today is the famous Trấn Quốc pagoda in Hanoi. According to the Zen monk Thích Nhất Hạnh, it was mistakenly believed in the past that the Indian monk Vinitaruci introduced Vietnamese dhyana Buddhism (Thiền) at the end of the 6th century. During his stay in Lũy Lâu in the year 580, he resided in the Pháp Vân monastery belonging to the dhyana school. It was also at this time that the dhyana monk Quán Duyên was teaching dhyana there. Other Vietnamese monks had gone to China to teach dhyana before the arrival of the famous monk Bodhidharma, recognized as the patriarch of the Chinese dhyana school and the patriarch of Kungfu.From now on, it is known that it was the monk Kang-Sen-Houci of Sogdian origin (Khương Tăng Hội), instead of Vinitaruci (Ti Ni Lưu Đà Chi), who deserves the credit for introducing dhyana Buddhism to Vietnam.

Vietnamese Buddhism began to flourish and reach its golden age when Vietnam succeeded in regaining independence under General Ngô Quyền. Under the Đinh, Early Lê, Lý, and Trần dynasties, Buddhism was recognized as the state religion.

[Buddhism under the Đinh, Tiền Lê, Lý, and Trần dynasties]

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Funan kingdom (Vương quốc Phù Nam)

j050807 Culture, Founan, Histoire, Lịch sử, Oc Eo, Văn Hóa , ,

founan

Funan kingdom

Vietnamese version
French version

Until the dawn of the 20th century, the information was received about this old Hinduized kingdom in some Chinese texts. It was mentioned during the Three Warring States period of Chinese history (Tam Quốc )(220-265) in Chinese writings since the establisment of diplomatic relations between  the Wu state (Đông Ngô) and foreign countries. In this report, it is noted that the governor of Guandong and Tonkin provinces, Lu-Tai sent representatives (congshi) in the south of his kingdom. The kings, beyond the borders of his kingdom (Funan, LinYi (future Chămpa) and Tang Ming (country identified in the northern Tchenla at the time of Tang dynasty) sent each other an ambassador to pay him their tribute. Then Funan was also quoted in the dynastic annals from the Tsin dynasty (nhà Tấn) until the Tang dynasty (Nhà Ðường).

Even the name of Funan is the phonetic transcription of the old khmer word bhnam (mountain) in Chinese characters. It still gives rise to reservations and reluctances in the interpretation of Funan by « mountain » for some experts. These one find the justification of the name « Funan » in the best sense of « hillock » because, until quite recently, in the ethnographical studies [Martin 1991; Porée-Maspero 1962-69] , the Khmer were used to practising ceremonies around the artificial hillocks. Being affected by this custom that they did not know, the Chinese have made reference to this mode of practice for designating this kingdom. Thanks to archaeological excavations which took place in 1944 at Óc Eo with French Louis Malleret in An Giang province located into the south of present-day Vietnam, the existence and prosperity of this Indianised kingdom have not been in doubt. The results of these excavations had been written in his doctoral thesis, then published in an entitled work « Archaeology of the Mekong delta » representing 6 volumes.

This allows to confirm the Chinese informations and to make them a little more precise in the confinement and localization of this kingdom. Because of the abundance of  tin archaeological finds, French archaeologist Louis Malleret did not hesitate to borrow the name Óc Eo for designating this tin civilization. We begin to have now a deep light on this kingdom as well as its external relations during the resumption of excavations undertaken both by Vietnamese teams (Đào Linh Côn, Võ Sĩ Khải, Lê Xuân Diêm) and French-Vietnamese team led by Pierre-Yves Manguin between 1998 and 2002 in An Giang, Ðồng Tháp and Long An provinces where a large number of sites of Óc Eo culture are located.

We know that Óc Eo was a major port of this kingdom and was a transit hub in trade exhanges between the Malaysian peninsula and India on one hand and between the Mekong and China on other one. As the boats of the region could not cover long distances and had to follow the coast, Óc Eo thus became a mandatory stop and a important strategic step during the 7 centuries of blooming and prosperity for Funan kingdom.
Óc Eo civilization

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This one occupied a quadrangle included between the gulf of Thailand and Transbassac (western plains of Mekong delta or miền tây in Vietnamese) in the South of Vietnam. It was bounded in the northwest by the Cambodian border and in the southeast by Trà Vinh and Sóc Trăng cities. Aerial photos taken by the French people in the 1920s revealed that Funan was a maritime empire (or a thalassocracy).

The Chinese authors tell us that immense city states, encircled by successive lines of earthen ramparts and ditches formely filled by crocodiles, were divided into districts by the ramification of canals and arteries. We can imagine houses and stores on piles, bordered by ships as in Venice or in the Hanseatic cities. We discover in this surprising network constituted by stars of rectilinear canals arranged according to the northeast / southwest frame (from Bassac towards the sea) and all communicating with each other, its important role for evacuating Bassac floodwaters towards the sea. This allows to wash the soil with alum, repulse headways of brackish water during Bassac floods, favor the floating rice, ensure especially the provisioning inside the kingdom by cargoes of coastal navigation coming from China, Malaysia, India and even from Mediterranean circumference.

The discovery of gold coins bearing Antonin le Pieux (in 152 A.D.) or Marc Aurèle‘s effigies and low-reliefs carvings of Persian kings testifies to the important role of this kingdom in trade exchanges at the beginning of the Christian era. There is even a grand canal allowing to connect the port city Óc Eo on one hand with the sea and on the other hand with the Mekong and the ancient city of Angkor Borei, located 90 km upstream in the Cambodian territory. This one would be presumably the capital of Funan in its decline.

For French archaeologist Georges Coedès, there is no question that the Angkor Borei site corresponds exactly to that of Na-fou-na, described in Chinese texts as the city where kings of Funan wildrew after their eviction from the ancient capital of Funan, Tö-mu, identified as the city Vyàdhapura located in the Bà Phnom region of the Cambodian territory by Georges Coedès [BEFEO, XXVIII, p. 127]. The wealth of this archeological site and the variety of archeological remains originating from it, confirm his affirmation.

Thanks to archeological finds that have been recovered during all series of excavations on the complex of Óc Eo sites, we can say that this kingdom knew three important periods during its existence:

The first period which extends from the 1st to about 3th century, distinguishes itself by terra-cottas (ceramic potteries, bricks, tiles), glassware (pearls and necklaces), silverware (rings, earrings), stones sculptures (seals, signet rings, cabochons), copper, iron, bronze and especially tin objects.

We attend the first human activity on hillocks in the Óc Eo plain and on low slopes of Ba Thê mountain. The habitat is on piles and wood. The common jar grave in the South-East Asia is still practised. The process of the Indianisation is not yet started by the absence of statuaries and religious relics. But there is, all the same, a regular contact between this kingdom and India.

The commercial exchange is strengthened by local alliances and Indian teachers arrival. These one, retained longer for their stays in this kingdom because of the season of monsoons, continued to practise their religions (Brahmanism, Buddhism). They began to make emulators among the natives and to help the latter in the implementation of a hydraulic network allowing to drain the flooded plain, until now, hostile and to make it « useful » for the habitat, cultivation and development of their kingdom. The Indians were known to realize advisedly the works of agricultural hydraulics and cultivation. It is what we have seen in the country of the Tamils during the Pallava period for example.

The floating rice cultivation is attested by the traces of use of this graminaceous plant as degreasing agent for pottery. For French researcher of CNRS, J.N. Népote, specialist of the Indo-Chinese peninsula, Funan kingdom received most of its revenues from the agricultural sector in the technique of floating rice.

It was not necessary to cultivate the soil nor to sow and even less to plant rice seedlings in this time when the coastal fringe of Funan was an flooded zone of polders. The rice grew alone at the same time as the water level, this one being able to reach three metres in height. The rice was later harvested by boats. For the floating rice, the only constraint to be required was the distribution and regulation of floods by the digging of canals in order to be better able to manage the irrigation water and facilitate the means of communication.

The second period of the Funan history (4th- 7th centuries) is marked by the discovery of a large number of Vishnouist and Buddhist religious monuments on the hillocks of Oc Eo plain and on the slopes of Mount Ba Thê. The emblematic figures of the Indian pantheon (Shiva, Vishnu, Brahma, Nanin, Ganesha and Buddha) were exposed. It is also the period when the piled wooden housing moves from hillocks towards flooded plain and low slopes of Ba Thê mountain.

The indianisation of the kingdom was underway when we saw around 357 an Indian of Chinese name Tchou Tchan-t’an, being perhaps of Scythian origin and Kanishka descent, to reign in Funan kingdom [Founan: Paul Pelliot, p 269], which could explain the success of the Surya cult and its iconography in the Funan art. Another Brahman of Chinese name (Kiao-Tchen-Jou) (or Kaundinga-Jayavarma) will succeed him and will reign in Funan kingdom between 478 and 514. It is the period quite known thanks to local inscriptions in sanskrit.

Even the myth of the kingdom’s foundation comes from India: a Brahman named Kaundinya, guided by a dream, get a magic bow in a temple and navigates towards these banks where he manages to beat the girl named Soma of the native sovereign presented as Naga king (a fabulous snake) then he marries her to govern this country. We can say that during this period, the Funan kingdom knew its peak and maintained close relations with China.

The magnitude of its trade was indisputable by the discovery of a large number of objects other than that of India found on Funan banks: fragments of bronze mirrors dating from the Han anterior period, Buddhist bronze statuettes attributed to Wei dynasty, a group of purely Roman objects, statuettes of Hellenistic style in particular a bronze representation of Poseidon. These objects were probably exchanged for goods because Funan people only knew the barter. For the purchase of valuable products, they used golden and silver ingots, pearls and perfumes. They were known as excellent jewelers. The gold was finely worked with numerous Brahmanic symbols. Jewels (golden earrings with the delicate clasp, admirable golden filigrees, glass pearls, intaglios etc.) exposed in the museums of Đồng Tháp, Long An and An Giang testifies not only of their know-how and their talent but also the admiration of the Chinese in their narratives during their contact with Funan people.

The last period corresponds to the decline and end of Funan kingdom. A important change was indicated during period tcheng-kouan (627-649) to Funan kingdom in the Chinese annals. The kingdom of Tchen-la (Chân Lập) (future Cambodia) situated in the southwest of Lin Yi ( future Champa) and country vassal of Funan took over the latter and subjugated it. This fact was not only reported in the new history of Tang (618-907) of Chinese historian Ouyang Xiu but also on a new inscription of Sambor-Prei Kuk in which king of Tchen La, Içanavarman was congratulated for having increased the territory of his parents. One thus bear witness to the abandonment of habitat and religious sites in the plain Óc Eo because the centre of gravity of the new political formation coming from the North leaves the coast to gradually approach the site of the future capital of Khmer empire, Angkor.

For French researcher J. Népote, the Khmers come from the North by Laos appear as Germanic bands against the Roman empire, try to establish inside lands a unitarian kingdom under the name of Chen La. They have no interest to keep the technique of the floating rice because they live far from the coast. They try to combine their own mastery of water storage with the contributions of Indian hydraulic science (barays) to finalize through multiple experimentations an irrigation better adjusted to the hinterland ecology and local varieties of irrigated rice.

In spite of the recent discoveries confirming the existence of this kingdom, many questions have remained unanswered. We do not know who were the indigenous people populating this kingdom. One thing is for sure: they were not Vietnamese who had arrived only in the Mekong delta in the 17th century. Were they ancestors of the Khmers? Some had this conviction when Louis Malleret began excavations in the 1940s because the toponymy of the region was totally Khmer. At the time of Funan, it was yet not clear what this is. However, thanks to the study of osseous remains of Cent-Rues (in the peninsula of Cà Mau), we are dealing with a population very close to Indonesians (or Austro-Asiatic ) (Nam Á).

A Mon-Khmer contribution in the North of this kingdom can be possible to give to Funan the juxtaposition and the fusion of two strata which are not far away from each other before becoming the race of Funan people. In this hypothesis frequently accepted, the Funan people were the proto-Khmers or the cousins of the Khmers. The absorption of a city of Malaysian peninsula (known under the name Dunsun in the Chinese sources reporting this fact ) in the 3th century by Funan in an area where the Mon-Khmer influence is undeniable, is one of the determining elements in favour of this hypothesis.

In what conditions did Óc Eo disappear? Nevertheless Óc Eo played an economic role in commercial exchanges during seven first ones centuries of the Christian era. The archaeologists continue to look for the causes of the disappearance of this port city: flood, fire, deluge, epidemic etc. …

Is the Funan kingdom a state unified with a strong central power or is it a federation of centers of urbanized and sufficiently autonomous political power on the Indo-Chinese peninsula as on the Malaysian peninsula so that we qualify them as city-states?

P.Y.Manguin has already raised this question during a colloquium organized by Copenhagen Polis centers on the city-states of the coastal South-East Asia in December, 1998. Where is its capital if the central power is strongly emphasized many times by the Chinese in their texts? Angkor Borei, Bà Phnom are they really the former capitals of this kingdom like that has been identified by French Georges Coèdes?

For the moment, what has been found does not bring answers but it only redoubles the envy and desire of archaeologists to find them in the coming years because they know that they have the feeling of dealing with brilliant civilization of the Mekong delta.

 

Bibliography references

Georges Coedès: Quelques précisions sur la fin du Founan, BEFEO Tome 43, 1943, pp1-8
Bernard Philippe Groslier: Indochine, Editions Albin Michel, Paris 
Lê Xuân Diêm, Ðào Linh Côn,Võ Sĩ Khai: Văn Hoá Oc eo , những khám phá mới (La culture de Óc Eo: Quelques découvertes récentes) , Hànôi: Viện Khoa Học Xã Hội, Hô Chí Minh Ville,1995 
Manguin,P.Y: Les Cités-Etats de l’Asie du Sud-Est Côtière. De l’ancienneté et la permanence des formes urbaines. 
Nepote J., Guillaume X.: Vietnam, Guides Olizane 
Pierre Rossion: le delta du Mékong, berceau de l’art khmer, Archeologia, 2005, no422, pp. 56-65.

The Hmong (English version)

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dantoc_hmong

French version
Vietnamese  version

The Hmong are divided into local  sub-groups: the Green Hmong, the Red Hmong, the variegated Hmong, the Black Hmong and the Na Mieo.

The Hmong (The Miao or Miêu in vietnamese) actually  living in Vietnam are  descendants of emigrants from South China. Around the end of 18th century and the beginning of 19th century, the Hmong emigrated to Indochina peninsula (Laos, Vietnam and Thaïland)  and settled  away from plains already occupied by  majority ethnic group  in mountainous areas of Hà Giang and Lào Cai provinces.

Their migration story was closely related to the insubordination to the Chinese culture and the policy of asssimilation practiced by northerners. According to mythic tales passed down from generation to generation, their ancestors lived in snow and  ice covered regions where the night lasted almost 6 months. That is why, being accustomed to living in tropical regions and not having the opportunity to see the snow, the Hmong use terms such as « nước cứng » (or solid water) and « cát trắng mịnh » (or fine white sand) to designate respectively the ice and the snow. According to historians, their origin would be in Siberia (Tây Bá Lợi Á) and in vast plateaus of Mongolia. Some Caucasian proeminent traits are detected among the Hmong today. Others preferably opt for Tibet because shamanic rituals.  One has speculations more than certainties about the accuracy of the Hmong geographic origin. In the Chinese writings, the Hmong were designated under the Miao name including initially all the  ethnic peoples non han living in South West China. Today,  this name is reserved to the population group specifically identified and distinct gathering together the Hmong living in Indochina peninsula and  the Miao ethnic minority populations  (The Hmong, the Hmou, the Qoxiong and the Hmau)  closely related at the linguistic and cultural level in China.

Originally related to the drawing of  rice field (Điền) above which is added the pictogram Thảo” (cỏ) (herb)(key 140), the Chinese character Miao (or Miêu in vietnamese) clearly shows the way that the Chinese adopt  to call  the people knowing  the rice cultivation with their language. Being initially rice farmers, the Miao  had  the sedentary lifestyle in plains. As the Miao were chased by successive waves of the Chinese who dispossessed them of their  arable land and their rice field, they were forced to become highlanders  and stayed until today. Being rushed to high altitudes in inaccessible and hostile mountain areas, they were forced to adapt themselves to each environment where they looked  for an agricultural model allowing them to practice the rice cultivation (rice terraces). In spite of that, the Chinese had the habit of traiting them as the barbarians. The Chinese have gone as far as making a distinction between the shu Miao ( or the  cooked Hmong) and the sheng Miao (the uncooked Hmong), that means the assimilated  Hmong  and the  diehard Hmong  on the margins of Chinese civilization.  They  had the task of transforming these sheng Miao into shu Miao.  Myths and facts are not miss to enrich the history of the Miao (or the Hmong).  The latter is punctuated by endless conflicts with the Chinese since time immemorial. This long history of resistance to oppression gives them a particular reputation: they cannot be assimilated and very belligerent.

A people in search of freedom

femmes_hmong

The Miao ( or the Hmong ) lived together with Hsia(1) tribes since prehistoric times in the middle of Yellow River  Basin (Honan or Hà Nam in vietnamese).  Being associated with Chi You ( Suy Vưu ), they engaged the first confrontation leading to failure with the death of the latter at Zhuolu (Trác Lộc) in Heibei province (Hồ Bắc) (approximatively 2690 before J.C.).They were  henceforth  repelled by Yellow emperor Huang Yuan (Hiên Viên) and Yu the Great (Ðại Vũ) in the Bai Yue territory at  the Yang Tsé Basin River. Other conflicts were evoked with Miao groups in Chinese historical writings  of Shan and Zhou dynasties (1121 – 256 before J.C.). In the middle course of Yang Tsé River (Dương Tữ Giang), they exercised  significant influence over the political and social life of the Chu kingdom (Sỡ Quốc). The latter was considered as one of three principalities fighting among themselves for supremacy  during the Warring States period (Thời Chiến Quốc).  In addition to the soul recalling, we noted the close ties between the  Chu culture and the Miao on the various cultural  traits (lifestyle, habitat, language etc…)(2). They constituted probably the force majeure in the Chu population with the Luo Yue (the Proto-Vietnamese) and the ancestors of Thaï today (The Si Ngeou or Tây Âu).  This force majeure became the first bulwark of Yue and Miao tribes in the committed fight against the Chinese.
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Being in hemp, silk or cotton, the  Hmong pleated skirt whose decoration is own to every group, requires more than 20 meters for the length of the fabric. The method of pleating is one of the characteristics of Hmong women skirt.

Les Hmong

The  Hmong 

After the disappearance of this kingdom, the Miao continuated to be repelled in Guizhou (Quí Châu), Sichuan and Yunnan mountains.  Other military conflicts had emerged with Miao groups in the era of the first dynasty of the Han (140 – 87  before  J.C.) and during Five Dynasties (140 – 87 before  J.C.).  The Miao name was forgotten temporarily in Chinese writings until the establishment of Chinese suzerainty on these provinces by the Yuan ( or the Mongols of China). Then it was regularly mentionned again under the Ming dynasty. Because the Chinese strong demographic growth  ( from 100 millions to 450 millions between  13th and 18th centuries), the Chinese of the Ming dynasty continued to deprive the Hmong of their plateaus and their rice fields, which caused simultaneously the exodus and the fight engaged by the Hmong in the defense of their land. Some Hmong took up arms.  Other preferred to seek refuge in Indochina pensula, in particular in Vietnam by three  successive waves of which the most important was maked by  the  Taiping mystical insurrection   known under the name of Tai Ping Tian Guo (Thái Bình Thiên Quốc)  against the Qing  (from  1840 to 1868). The Hmong thus became a minority ethnic group of Vietnam since three centuries.

(1): There is the ancient name given to the Chinese.
(2): First  symposium on the history of  Chu kingdom (Jingzhu, Hubei, december 1981).

[Retour Viet et 54 minorités ethniques]

 

Art vietnamien (Nghệ thuật)

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Dương Vân Nga (English version)

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One speaks rarely of Dương Vân Nga in the history of Vietnam. Her name is not as often cited as that of the sisters Trưng Trắc Trưng Nhị or that of Triệu Ẩu. However she was an outstanding woman, the great queen of the first two dynasties Ðinh and Tiền Lê ( anterior Lê ) of Vietnam. Her life and works can be summed up in the following four verses which have been transmitted by oral tradition to our days and left on the wall of Am Tien monastery by a mysterious monk exactly 1000 years now, at his encounter with Dương Vân Nga:

Hai vai gồng gánh hai vua
Hai triều hoàng hậu, tu chùa Am Tiên
Theo chồng đánh Tống bình Chiêm
Có công với nước, vô duyên với đời

On her two shoulders two kings were carried
Queen of two reigns, she retired in Am Tien monastery.
Accompanying her spouse, she had beaten the Song and pacified the Cham
Service she rendered to her country, yet bad luck she got in her life.

Among the ten queens of these two dynasties, she was the only one to be allowed a statue bearing her effigy. During its restoration and transfer in the temple dedicated to King Lê Ðại Hành at the beginning of the Hậu Lê dynasty the statue oozed strangely, perhaps due to it being exposed suddenly to the sun after having been put in a humid place. At that time, it was said that this phenomenon was attributed to atrocious sufferings life has reserved to Dương Vân Nga during her lifetime.

Dương Vân Nga

Her real name was Dương Thị. Vân Nga was the name attributed to her by combining the first word of the name of the region of her father Vân Long and that of her mother Nga Mỹ. She was issue of a very poor background. At her very young age she had to collect wood in the forest and fish in the river to provide to the subsistence of her family in a mountainous and uneven region which is our Hoa Lư. Early morning in the forest, late evening in the river, she became without delay a young hard working, energetic and trouble shooting girl.

She had an innate sense of organization that allowed her to become in the following years the leader of a band of young girls in the area. She arrived at coping with a rival band constituted mainly of young boys led by the buffalo tender Ðinh Bộ Lĩnh by completely disperse his herd of buffaloes by using firecrackers and by her perfect mastery of round floating baskets that helped rapid transport of her troops across swamps and streams. But Ðinh Bộ Linh finally had the last word thanks to his scheme of recourse to poles and light craft of bamboo mat to pierce and immobilize all the round floating baskets of Dương Vân Nga. From then on Ðinh Bộ Lĩnh not only conquered Duong Van Nga’s admiration but also her love. That is why nowadays to evoke conjugal union and predestined love of a couple, it is often referred to the following popular expression: Bamboo mat craft crush round floating baskets ( Thuyền tre đè thuyền thúng )

Thuyền thúng

Thanks to their association, they arrived at gathering under their banner all the young of Hoa Lu and eliminating without delay their opponents in the conquest of power. Thus Ðinh Bộ Lĩnh became the first king of the Ðinh dynasty often known as Ðinh Tiên Hoàng. He was very authoritarian. He used ranks and appointments to buy loyalty of his subordinates. He also used force and cruel and unimaginable punishments to punish his adversaries and those who dared criticize him.

Despite Dương Vân Nga’s advice, he remained unruffled and made several enemies to himself even in his family. Instead of appointing his eldest son Ðinh Liễn, the one who had helped him for several years in his fights for the unification of the country, he chose his youngest son Ðinh Hạng Lang as his crown prince. This provoked Ðinh Liễn’s jealousy and incited him to assassinate his younger brother. Dương Vân Nga was at first witness of the fratricidal fight among her children, then the death of her husband, king Ðinh Tiên Hoàng assassinated by Ðỗ Thích a crank who, after a dream, thought the kingdom should belong to him and the eldest son Ðinh Liễn killed by the rebel troops.

She soon had the pains and sufferings of her daughter, princess Phật Kim, deserted by her husband Ngô Nhật Khánh who, being one of the sons of Ngô Quyền, took refuge in Champa and requested this country to launch a maritime attack against his own land Vietnam in the goal of reconquest of power. Because of the age of her son Ðinh Toàn ( 6 years old ), she had to assume the regency with Lê Hoàn, a generalissimo, head of Vietnamese territories.

But she soon faced the armed resistance of her assassinated husband’s partisans who wanted to eliminate Lê Hoàn at any cost and also the imminent threat of the Song as well as Champa’s. She was placed in front of a dilemma that appeared to be difficult for a woman to overcome alone when she lived in a Confucian era and when Vietnam was just liberated from Chinese domination for about a dozen years. She had the courage to take a decision which appeared doubtful at that time and heavy of harmful consequences for the Dinh dynasty in yielding the throne to Le Hoan and associating with the latter in managing the Ðại Cồ Việt ( ancient Vietnam ).

Pictures gallery of Hoa Lư

 

This permitted Lê Hoàn to have a massive adhesion of a great part of population and restore not only the confidence but also the unity of the whole people. He thus succeeded in putting down the rebellion, wiping out the Song on the Bạch Ðằng river, starting the Nam Tiến movement ( or descent toward the South ) and restoring peace all over the country. One should place oneself in this troubling political context that Dương Vân Nga experienced in order to see that it was an act well thought out and courageous from the part of a woman who, trained up until then to be submissive to a Confucian yoke, dared accept the dishonor and scorn to assure that our country would not pass under Chinese domination and that Vietnam would not prolong in political chaos.

Her combat appeared to be more arduous than that of the Trưng Trắc Trưng Nhị sisters because it is the matter of not only a struggle against the invaders, but also her own interests, her personal sentiments for the love of this country.
During the reign of Lê Ðại Hành ( or Lê Hoàn ), she ceaselessly advised the latter to practice a politics of magnanimity towards his adversaries, to ban cruel punishments established by Ðinh Tiên Hoàng and to call on talented monks ( Khuông Việt, Ngô Chấn Lưu, Hồng Hiến, Vạn Hạnh ) to the management of the country. Being a warrior by nature, bearing the name of Great Expedition ( Ðại Hành ), he continued to enlarge Vietnam by leading not only a maritime expedition that destroyed the Cham capital Indrapura in presently Central Vietnam in 982 and killed the Cham king Bề Mi Thuế ( Paramec Varavarman ) but also a politics of pacification all over the place in the ethnic minority territories. It was in one of these battles that the last son of Dương Vân Nga and Ðinh Tiên Hoàng, Ðinh Toàn, died assassinated at the place of Lê Hoàn by the Mán. This death was followed by the suicide of her daughter, princess Phật Kim and the death by illness of her son Long Thâu that she had with Lê Ðại Hành. She was taken up by the disappearance of her entourage without complain. She preferred to live her last days in Am Tiên monastery and burry the personal sufferings of a woman facing her destiny.

Is it fair for a patriotic woman like Dương Vân Nga overwhelmed by destiny, not to be cheered and cited like the Trưng Trắc Trưng Nhị sisters in the history of our Vietnam? Is there anything to do with a deliberate omission because of a sacrilege committed by Dương Vân Nga for having married and served two kings in a feudal Confucian society which is ours? One cannot erase the truth of history especially these details, said the Chinese historian Si Ma Qian.

It is time to give back to Dương Vân Nga her notoriety and her place she deserved long time ago in our history pages and make known to future generations the courageous and full of wisdom decision. This one, even though it seemed doubtful and immoral for a Confucian society, was made in the moment where the situation exacted more than ever the cohesion and unity of the whole people facing foreign invasion, but also a man of valor and talent that was our great king Lê Ðại Hành. Without him, the Nam Tiến movement would not have taken place.